A quantitative approach to evaluate and develop theories on (fear of) crime in urban environments

Phd Projects

Martin TraunmuellerUniversity College London

This research explored the role of people dynamics in relation to (fear of) crime in cities. Besides the physicality of architecture, urban environments are being defined by social life that happens in between built space, and hence show different (fear of) crime patterns that change dynamically. Based on qualitatively conducted and well established urban crime studies from architectural theories, this work focus on different demographical properties, such as age, gender or ethnicity of urban population, and discusses their relation to crime activity and fear of crime perception in a city on a quantitative level. The project developed a set of methodologies that support urban researchers to validate and expand urban (fear of) crime theories at scale, by following a data mining and a crowdsourcing approach.

researchers to validate and expand urban (fear of) crime theories at scale, by following a data mining and a crowdsourcing approach. All three studies have been published in academic venues of both, computer science and urban studies, and have lead to significant debates within the research communities.

Martins PhD work lead to the award of a McArthur Foundation fellowship at the Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) at NYU/New York University, where he continues his research on urban crime with the New York Police Department (NYPD) and other interesting urban data related projects for the city.